Western Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:WES) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 9, 2024 2:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Daniel Jenkins - Director, IR
Michael Ure - President, CEO & Director
Kristen Shults - SVP & CFO
Conference Call Participants
Keith Stanley - Wolfe Research
Spiro Dounis - Citigroup
Noah Katz - JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Zach Van Everen - TPH & Company
Manav Gupta - UBS
Operator
This time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Western Midstream Partners First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Jenkins, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Daniel Jenkins
Thank you. I'm glad you could join us today for Western Midstream's First Quarter 2024 Conference Call. I'd like to remind you that today's call, the accompanying slide deck and last night's earnings release contain important disclosures regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP reconciliations. Please reference Western Midstream's most recent Form 10-Q and other public filings for a description of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we discuss today.
Relevant reference materials are posted on our website. With me today are Michael Ure, our Chief Executive Officer; and Kristen Shults, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Michael.
Michael Ure
Thank you, Daniel, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm excited to announce that the first quarter exceeded our expectations as strong producer activity levels higher rates associated with the cost of service rate redeterminations that became effective on January 1, and our continued focus on maintaining high levels of system operability all contributed to better-than-expected throughput increases and higher overall profitability.
Also, based on the latest producer forecasts, we expect these throughput trends to continue throughout the year. Thus, we now expect higher average year-over-year throughput growth rates for all products, and we expect to end up near the high end of our previously disclosed adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow guidance ranges.
Kristen will provide more detail on our updated guidance expectations shortly. Before we get into the specifics of the first quarter, I am pleased to announce that Mentone Train III completed the commissioning phase and became operational in early April.
This is our first major construction project since becoming a stand-alone enterprise, and I would like to thank and congratulate all the teams that worked so diligently to bring Mentone III to completion. This achievement increases our natural gas processing capacity at our West Texas complex in the Delaware Basin by approximately 18%, which will benefit WES financially due to our fixed fee processing agreements and reduced reliance on offloads going forward.